The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

A Weekend of Drama

On Friday, the Padres performed terribly, and I was not happy with them. But on Saturday, they rallied back to play one of the best games of the year.

In the first inning, the Manny got his first home run since he got back, and good riddance that we got that out of the way. So, the Dodgers fans were happy, now it was time to get the Padres fans happy.

In the second, Henry Blanco singled, but was hurt rounding first. Turns out that he strained a hamstring. Eliezar Alfonso came in to catch, and the backup catcher would have been Edgar Gonzalez. I think Kouz would have been the absolute emergency catcher :)

In the third, starting pitcher Josh Geer started the inning with a double, the first extra-base hit of his career. Wow.

Then, Everth Cabrera laid down a sac-bunt to move him to third. Next up was David Eckstein, and all Padres fans knew that he would get the job done. I mean, runner on third with one out, Eck’s going to get him in. He’s been doing it all year. And guess what? He did it! He hit a single to tie the game.

Things stayed scoreless until the seventh. Josh Geer threw 6.1 innings, giving up two runs and walking none. He was good. Randy Wolf on the other side was pretty good himself. He threw six innings, allowing one run and striking out eight. OK, he was a lot better than Josh!!

In the seventh, Greg Burke allowed the go-ahead run to score on a wild pitch. Oh boy. But the scoring in this game was no where near to being done.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Padres rallied to take the lead for good. Eliezar Alfonso walked, Tony Gwynn singled, and Kyle Blanks was hit by pitch. Then Everth Cabrera, the hero of the game, singled in two to give the Padres the lead.

Later in the inning, Adrian Gonzalez singled in Everth to give us a 4-2 lead.

In the top of the eighth, the Dodgers got another run to make the game very close.

In the bottom of the inning, Alfonso singled and Gwynn reached on an error (the Dodgers had three errors in the game!!). Heath Bell got the last out in the top of the eighth, so he was batting for himself. He hadn’t had an at-bat since 2005, but he went out there and laid down a sac-bunt. Way to go Heath!

Everth Cabrera then hit a two-run single. David Eckstein drove in Everth, and the Padres had a 7-3 lead!

In the top of the ninth, Heath Bell was all over the place. Maybe it was because he was so excited about his bunt or whatever, but he was having a hard time throwing a strike. He allowed a walk, and a single to drive in a run before striking out three. Whew!! It was pretty stressing, but Heath made it, and the Padres won the game, 7-4!!

It was such an incredible game!! “Everything” Cabrera was definitely the star. He had two hits, driving in three runs. He also had that sac-bunt. He does what needs to get done.

Not to mention his defense. He had five excellent plays to rob players at shortstop, including two against the Manny. HA! Seriously, this guy has been just amazing, and he’s only going to get better! AHHH!! He put on quite a show for the TV (FOX was broadcasting this game because of the Manny. That’s really lame, but at least the Padres played excellently and won the game!!).

I am sooo excited about this guy!! It’s going to be so much fun just to see him get better!

In the rubber game, things appeared like it would be an easy game for the Dodgers. But it ain’t over ’til my Padres say it’s over!!

Josh Banks was not that great. He allowed six runs in 4.1 innings, allowing three home runs. Ugh.

In the fifth, the Padres finally broke through to Chad Billingsley. My boy Kouz snapped an 0-for-17 streak with a solo homer. Good job, baby!!

So, we go on to the ninth. We’re losing by five runs, rubber game. Billingsley was still pitching, which just goes to show how good he was. I was taking a nap, but woke up as the inning started.

Chase Headley started it off with a solo homer. Ok, getting closer… Tony Gwynn doubled, and Chad was done for the day. In comes Jonathan Broxton, of all people. This is the huge guy, almost 300 pounds and throw upwards to 100 mph. This guy is gooooood.

But the Padres have done it before. They have scored five runs off of Broxton in the ninth at PETCO Park to win a game. Will they do it again?

David Eckstein flew out for the first out. But then Scott Hairston walked. But then Adrian Gonzalez struck out. The Dodgers were this close to getting the game…

Will Veneble singled to drive in our third run. Edgar Gonzalez and Eliezar Alfonso walked, Alfonso’s driving in a run. I was hanging on every pitch, by the way. It was so crazy!!

Next up was Everth Cabrera. Now, this was probably the most stressing at-bat of the whole inning. Oh man. He ran the count to full before finally hitting it. It went through the middle into center, and two runs scored to tie the game. But the center fielder threw to third and got the out there. So, the inning was over, but we had tied the game. It was great, but so sad. If the baserunner hadn’t made that blunder, we would have had the winning run right there. That was really disappointing, but we did great. We got five runs. We did the improbable.

But things didn’t go well from there. We had perfect opportunities to get the game won, but my boys were trying too hard. Finally, in the top of the 13th, James Loney hit a solo homer to put the Dodgers on top. I hate James Loney.

The Padres couldn’t do anything in the bottom of the inning, despite leaving two runners on, and so we lost, 7-6.

The Dodgers left 14 runners on in the whole game. Wow. The Padres left six, but we should have won that game. In my eyes, we won that game in the ninth. We should have, anyways. It was very disappointing to lose that game, but we played very well in the last two games. I was pleased with that.

But this team is still not that great.

Well, Adrian Gonzalez got his second All-Star honor. He was voted in by the players. At least someone is noticing how good he is. Goodness. Also, Heath Bell is getting his first All-Star appearance. This guy was languishing in the Mets minor league system just a few years ago, and now he’s an All-Star. That’s pretty amazing. Congrats to Adrian and Heath!!

It is with a very sad heart that I must announce the trade of Scott Hairston to the Oakland A’s. I love Scotty!! I learned the terrible news this morning, and boy was I disappointed. We got Scotty in 2007, and he was essential to our playoff run that year. He was the one who hit the big two-run homer in Game 163 in the top of the 13th. Known for his multiple walk-off homers with us, we loved having him here. He’s an excellent player who works so hard. He always runs hard to first, even if it’s an out. He’s an amazing center fielder as well. He’s made some incredible plays. I’m going to miss Scotty so much!! He’s been so amazing with us, and it’s so sad that he had to leave. We’ll miss you sooo much Scotty!! Thanks for all the great times an memories in San Diego!!!

We’re getting three minor league pitchers for him. They’d better be good.

So, it was a really interesting weekend in Padres baseball. We’re going to Arizona next for three games with the Diamondbacks. I really hope we can just play well. The fans deserve at least that.

Walter Silva will be pitching against Jon Garland. Silva really really needs to get back on track, or else he might be headed for a certain minor league team soon.

Man, Heath Bell stinks with the Mets and they give him up for Ben Johnson Jon Adkins (who?) and now he is an All-Star closer getting 5 out saves? Boy, we could have used him last year. At least he is helping me with my fantasy team. :Dhttp://metsmainman.mlblogs.com

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We all loved Scotty Hairston as a Padre :( I was so sad to hear that news. And Eck is on the 15 day DL!!! Which means we can’t see him on the game we are going to. This is just sooo sad!! Boo-hoo!http://hyunyoung.mlblogs.com

Oh man, the Padres are slipping!! Just like the Red Sox, what are we going to do with them?? Nice to know Manny is back, and hit a home run. Good luck with the rest of the season!! And hopefully, the Padres and Red Sox learn how to play…or win!!
-Hollyhttp://irishsoxkid19.mlblogs.com

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